It’s the oldest trick in the book. Profess religiosity, get a ton
of votes.

Has anyone become president in years without proving his
religious bent? Jimmy Carter was the first “born again”
president—and his profession of faith certainly helped him win in
1976, though it did not rally enough troops for him in 1980. He
lost to Ronald Reagan, who made a big deal out of his own
supposed (but dubious) religious devotion, which got him the
backing of the then-powerful Moral Majority. And then, of course,
there was the “born again” George W. Bush. Others, including
Clinton and Obama, have done what they had to do in that regard.

Now we get to Ron Paul. A lot of people like him because he talks
straight on a number of issues others won’t touch. But is he a
man who shuns opportunity? Consider this: one of Paul’s senior
advisers is faith outreach specialist Doug Wead.

Readers of my history of the Bush dynasty, Family of
Secrets, know that I interviewed Wead extensively and
devoted an entire chapter to him. Wead, a former Pentecostal
minister, has been advising politicians for years on what they
must do to appeal to self-identified Christian voters. He advised
George H.W. Bush, but couldn’t get the Sunday churchgoer to
remake himself in a way that would suffice for evangelicals.
According to Wead, though, a very young George W. Bush saw the
embrace of fervent religiosity as his professional salvation. As
I wrote in Family of Secrets:

Inge Honneus, the woman Bush pursued when he was in the National
Guard, recalled how W. felt free to discuss all manner of topics
with her since she was so far out of his normal circle. “We
talked about religion,” she said, and “he thought it was a joke.
And when he started going and running for president, and trying
to get the religious votes, I’m thinking, ‘What a hypocrite.’ I
don’t know if he all of a sudden turned religious. But the core
of him was not a very nice man.” Nice man or not, one thing is
certain: with his entry into Bible study, Bush was reinventing
himself.

It was a politically savvy idea, but, in truth, it was not his
own. It appears that it was neither W.’s Midland friends nor the
Reverend Billy Graham who helped him see the light. It was Doug
Wead, marketing man. …

Family of Secrets goes on to document how Wead coached
the Bushes on ways to connect with the huge fundamentalist voting
bloc, and how, while this made the elder George Bush squirm, the
younger namesake became an enthusiastic student. Wead told me
about this response from the mid-eighties, around the time that
George W. Bush supposedly suddenly saw the light:

I hadn’t met W. yet, but he knew me because he was getting all
these memos, and he was basically saying, ‘Dad, this is right.
This is what people in Midland think. My born-again friends say
this. He’s right.’ “When I finally met W., [he said] ‘I’ve read
all of your stuff—it’s great stuff.’ He said, ‘We’re going to get
this thing going.’ ”

Now, it is Ron Paul’s turn. Frederick Clarkson, writing on the
website Talk To Action, analyzes Paul’s
challenge in reconciling his dominant Libertarian support base
with fundamentalist voters, who play a crucial role in early GOP
electoral battlegrounds like Iowa.

…Ron Paul seeks to reinvent his public persona to better or at
least differently reflect how his religious views relate to his
politics. Indeed, he seems to be making it a central part of his
effort to break out beyond his famous hard core of supporters
that number under ten percent in most polls.

Paul explained how his beliefs in limited government and even his
opposition to the Federal Reserve had their foundations in
scripture, combined with his study of the Constitution. Before he
left to take the stage that night in November, Paul smiled and
said to Wead, who told this story to Yahoo News, “You know, the
libertarians are just baffled by me. They didn’t think it was
possible for someone to come this direction. A person of faith.”

In stark contrast to how he campaigned four years ago, Paul has
made a concerted push during this presidential campaign to
emphasize how religion has shaped his policy ideas. Through
public addresses, campaign advertisements and conversations with
voters, Paul has engaged in an intentional effort to articulate
the biblical roots of his philosophy. These efforts are most on
display here in Iowa, where most Republican caucusgoers align
themselves with socially conservative views, and where Paul is
building what has become a robust organizational machine to
connect with them. Paul has surged into second place in Iowa,
according to several recent polls. The Real Clear Politics
polling average for the state has Paul tied with Mitt Romney at
17 percent, behind Newt Gingrich’s 30 percent.

Of interest is this, from a Washington Post article in
October:

…the libertarian-minded lawmaker is actually very religious. He’s
not a member, but officials at First Baptist Church of Lake
Jackson, Texas say Paul attends services whenever he’s in town.
He left the Episcopalian church in which he
was raised in part over its stance on abortion rights.

That’s an interesting stand for a Libertarian—leaving his church
because it supported a woman’s right to choose.

Actually, Paul, whose supporters love the fact that he doesn’t
pull his punches, was considerably more sly on this matter.
Here’s an excerpt from a lengthy interview with Christianity Today:

All of our children were raised in the Episcopal Church. Some
[places] were fairly conservative but my wife and I thought
the Episcopal Church advocated a position that we didn’t endorse,
so we left. And our children did not stay in the Episcopal
Church either.

Related to specific issues?

I think it was the abortion issue. I imagine they
had some other issues. But I think the abortion issue was
the real big thing. And I think also some of the money was going
to some of the international organizations that were more
political—they weren’t missionaries. So it was an objection over
the way some of the money was being spent.

In that interview, Paul managed to avoid stating explicitly why
he, as opposed to family members, left the Episcopal
Church. And the interviewer failed to do her job by nailing him
down on it.

***

Religion is one of those areas that are considered beyond
question in the political realm: a candidate’s claims about his
faith are taken at face value. But make no mistake: there’s a
great advantage to be gained in painting oneself as “holier than”
one’s opponents.

Makes you wonder what happened to America that it is no longer
possible to elect politicians like Lincoln, who is reported to
have said:

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. And
that’s my religion.